SOTA NOVA, HR-X VPI, Technics 1200G recommendations?

My aversion to direct drive turntables comes from pretty extensive listening tests back in the late 70's early 80's. The universal opinion was that direct drive turntables sounded inferior to the best belt drive turntables. There were various theories of why this might be, none of them proven that I know of. I do know that isolating the turntable from everything else going on around it including the music is very important.

@mijostyn  I remember when direct drive was getting that bad rap. It turned out that there are good direct drive tts and bad ones, just like there are class D amps that sound terrible and others that are great. It depends on design and execution.

The thing that Technics always had going for them was a robust research and development department since they are owned by Panasonic.  Turns out that control theory, if properly applied, can work on a turntable no worries- with less speed variation than any belt drive ever made. They've not lost that expertise! While I don't doubt that you heard some inferior DD turntables, and some of them even lower priced Technics that were bad, you'd do well to disabuse yourself of your anecdotes and take a serious listen to either the 1200G or SP10R, either equipped with the tonearm of your choice.


I've done that and its the reason we stopped selling our Atma-Sphere 208, which is very speed stable for a belt-drive machine. The Technics is simply better- and for less money. I have to admit I like our plinth better but Technics did a very good job on theirs (in the SL1200G, not so much the SP10R IMO).

@chakster 

When you flip your record, do you stop the turntable each time? On my old SOTA, I just grabbed the record while the platter was turning and flip it. With hard surfaces like copper, I am thinking it would damage the record if you grab it while the platter is still turning.

Jay, Yeah, but with a good DD, there is a brake that stops the platter on a dime, and it takes seconds to get back up to speed.  So stopping the rotation in order to change or turn over the LP is not going to cause any extra delay. 

Along the lines of Atma-sphere's theme, besides the SP10R or the SL1200G, very few DD aficionados these days use the OEM plinths that were supplied along with the typical DD turntable in the vintage days.  I personally favor high mass and constrained layer damping, along with an energy absorbent shelf that could do its work by any of several modalities. Heck, I wouldn't even look down on a spring-supported shelf if done properly.  MC seems to have done that. Nor do most use the thick rubber mats that also were normal fare in days of yore.  Those definitely killed the sound.  (See also the many posts by Chakster and others regarding preferable mats.)

Lew,

I wasn't so much worried about the delay but the stress of constant starting/stopping on the motor.

There is no stress at all for DD motor, but if you don’t want to scratch your record sirface on a metal mats (flipping it when the platter is on) you have to press stop button first. If your mat is felt mat (slipmat) you don’t have to worry about it, because felt mat can’t damage your vinyl even if you will rotate the record to opposite direction on the spinning plater. This is why deejay using felt mats only (slipmats) on Technics.


I don’t use felt mats on any of my turntables in the main system, so I can flip the records only when rotation is off.